Vin Diesel’s cool, right? I mean, he was in such great films as xXx and Riddick and… well, that’s pretty much all that I can really remember. But if there’s one thing those films prove, it’s that our man Vin is a fan of kicking ass and taking names. So naturally, this means that he should… start a developer that produces games about him? Well whatever, let’s not judge until we play one of the games. How about, say, Wheelman?If you hadn’t already guessed it, Wheelman is about a man who is usually behind the wheel. Oh, but he’s driving really fast and he’s on the wrong side of the law. Vin Diesel acts as model and voice of the main character Milo, who is quickly revealed to actually be working for the American government to bring down three crime lords in Barcelona. Cue a ton of annoying Spanish accents and randomly switching between Spanish and English mid-conversation. Ya know, cos they’re Spanish!

Wheelman basically plays out like a GTA clone, except that’s making it sound better than it is, so instead I’ll call it a Driver 3 clone. The reason I say this is because, as the name suggests, you’re going to be driving a lot. Thankfully, the driving is pretty solid and the cars handle in a responsive manner. The cool part about driving though, is the fact that you can use the car as a weapon, either to slam into the side of enemy cars or shunt them from behind. Doing this enough times whilst driving fast and not crashing builds up a special bar, which allows you to either use a boost, or to spin the car around and shoot anyone following, or to just shoot straight ahead. You can fire your gun normally, but for some reason a designer thought it might be a great idea to only make the gun focus on the target if Vin fires blindly enough time, which makes shooting whilst driving a little pointless. And if your car takes too much damage, you can always just jump into another one whilst still driving, which, I have to admit, is pretty damn cool.

Well, you might be thinking, it’s all well and good having fun on the road, but what about on foot? And in answer to that question, the less said the better. That’s another thing that makes this game closer to Driver than GTA; the on foot handling sucks. The targeting reticule for shooting is totally useless, so half the time you’ll be pointing at a guys head and bullets will be zipping past him while he blasts chunks out of you. You can always free-aim, but it’s about as useful as locking on, so you may as well choose the option that requires less effort.

There’s plenty to do in the city of Barcelona, and luckily all the activities are driving based, so you won’t have to spend too much time on foot. Extra missions include your standard street races, with the nice addition that you can destroy your opponent’s cars, a taxi activity which requires you to get from A to B as quickly as possible, complete with wailing Spaniard in the back seat, and a particularly fun mission called Made To Order, where you steal a car and return it to a point, whilst against the clock and trying to avoid causing any damage to the vehicle. If you’re a completionist then you’ll find yourself spending hours trying to S rank every single activity, and even if you’re not you’ll want to give it a shot, as performing well in these tasks can give you bonuses for the main missions. Overall these side missions add a nice little diversion to the game, but you’ll be grateful that they’re not compulsory.

The graphics aren’t spectacular, but they are pretty nice. The streets are well populated, so at least you’re not driving round a ghost town, and it’s always sunny in Barcelona, making everything appealing to the eye. Clearly more attention has been put into Milo’s model, as his abs are well formed and his chiselled jaw is perfectly shown… it’s enough to make a man fall in love. The rest of the characters, of whom there are many, don’t look quite as nice, particularly the women for some reason. Perhaps the art team was full of sexist men. Or maybe I’m reading too much into this.

Sound-wise, the engines of the cars all sound very nice, although guns do sound a bit weak when fired. I found myself turning off the radio in the car most of the time, mainly because I don’t speak a word of Spanish, but also because the stereotypical Texan man on the “American” station started being annoying almost two minutes in to his broadcast, when he announced that his only friends were Mr Smith and Mr Wesson. In fact, voice acting is pretty dull across the board. Even Vin Diesel delivers every line with a monotonous drone, which is especially grating when he’s trying to deliver a car-related joke.

Wheelman is not a great game by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s actually quite sweet to see Vin try and make himself look more badass by having a company create games about him. If you’re a fan of the man, or enjoy smashing things to pieces with a large car, I would definitely recommend it. Everyone else however will probably find a relatively mediocre action-driving game waiting for them.

Score: 6/10